Camp clearances, threats, persecution of the Rrom and Sinti people on Italian soil by the institutions and police – who are their armed division, guilty “only” of obeying the dispositions in force – are continuing non-stop, in spite of the Resolution and the harsh criticism of Italy by the European Union, United Nations and human rights associations that say Italy has slipped into the most short-sighted and ruthless racism. The racist campaign being carried out by both left-wing and right-wing local authorities is hitting out at a minority that has been deprived of everything in Italy. The same accusations Nazi propaganda reserved for the gypsies of the Reich are now being repeated by Italian mayors, deputy-mayors, police chiefs, police officers: “Gypsies are con men, thieves, rapists, slave drivers of minors, immoral, drug pushers”.

The Rrom community is made up of “members of a criminal racket capable of moving around the regions of Northern Italy in order to commit serial crimes”. The media, no longer able to distinguish the truth, are publishing and broadcasting this endless succession of racist lies, which are instigating Italian citizens against the weakest and poorest minority.

And before the law, the Rroms have no defence, because the court lawyers bend to the authorities, politicians do not bother to make use of their right to meet prisoners and ensure their cases are being dealt with correctly. Meanwhile human rights associations do not receive any reply to their protests. The tone and words used to criminalize the gypsies as a group is the principle element that violates the rights of the Rrom minority, while the authorities and press should always remember that any crimes committed are the responsibility of the individual and are not to be attributed to the ethnic group they belong to.

I can still vividly remember the terrible scenes of the camp clearances I witnessed (before the authorities ordered police lines to hide the pogroms taking place in the gypsy camps). I remember the scenes of violenceand inhumane repression towards men, women (even pregnant women) and children (some just a few months old).

I can still see the interrogation by a police officer in Milan of a Rrom child of about 11 or 12, and the strong hands of an armed man around the helpless child’s throat. “You stole”, he yelled, and sobbing the young boy answered: “Yes, I’ll confess, anything you want, but don’t hurt me!” With this in mind, this press note records the latest brilliant undertaking by the Milan police force.

The flying squad makes two arrests

Milan, February 6th (Adnkronos) . “The decisive operation carried out by the Flying Squad in Milan is “the umpteenth blow inflicted against the gangs of criminals who are swindling the elderly. It follows the results and hard work over the last few months by the “anti-con” pool set up by the public prosecutor’s office, and the campaigns organised by the local authorities in the parishes”. This is the statement by the deputy-mayor and councillor in charge of public security, Riccardo De Corato after the operation carried out by the Flying Squad of Milan which led to the arrest in Pavia of two gypsies of the Sinti ethnic group, responsible for con tricks aimed at the elderly.

The arrests carried out by the Flying Squad”, explained De Corato, “confirm what the public prosecutor’s office had already established. That is that the cons the elderly have fallen victim to have specific characteristics and precise culprits: gypsies who are now Italians, and far from being incompetent, they are capable of moving around Northern Italy in order to carry out serial crimes”.

“Less than a month ago” recalls De Corato, “another Sinti, responsible for at least three cons aimed at the elderly, was arrested. This new arrest, therefore, only confirms that these loathsome crimes are mainly being carried out by well-organized gangs of gypsies”.

The persecution and racist campaign against the Rroms in Italy continues

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